Half of our world’s food supply is dependent on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, yet it has serious environmental impacts. Fertilizer contributes to about 500 ocean dead zones around the globe; decomposes into nitrous oxide which is responsible for about 5 percent of global warming; and prevents the natural ability of soil microbes to produce nitrogen that nourish food crops. Farmers are looking for new tools today that can help them reliably feed their nitrogen-hungry crops in a more environmentally sustainable way.

Recognizing current fertilizer practices are unsustainable, we’re solving the toughest problem of all: nitrogen fixation in cereal crops. Through the power of biology, machine learning and computational modeling, we reawaken microbes’ natural ability to convert nitrogen from the air to meet crops’ daily nitrogen needs.